חוק ההגבלים העסקיים (תיקון מס' 21), התשע"ט-2019Law on the Restrictive Trade Practices Law (Amendment No. 21), 2019 · automatic translation · suggest a correction

Official summary of the law (Knesset)

The Restrictive Trade Practices Law (Amendment No. 21), 2019 (hereinafter – the Amendment) was passed in second and third readings on 1 January 2019, and it amends the Restrictive Trade Practices Law, 1988 (hereinafter – the Law). The Amendment changes the name of the Law to the "Economic Competition Law, 1988", and accordingly the Commissioner of Restrictive Trade Practices will be called the Commissioner of Competition (hereinafter – the Commissioner); the Restrictive Trade Practices Authority will be called the Competition Authority, and the Restrictive Trade Practices Tribunal will be called the Competition Tribunal (hereinafter – the Tribunal). All of these amendments reflect the purpose of the Law – promoting economic competition in the economy. The Amendment tightens the prohibitions on business practices that raise a concern of significant harm to competition and increases the penalties for such practices, while at the same time easing restrictions on business activity that does not raise such a concern: Among the more stringent provisions are various increases in penalties, both criminal – raising the penalty for committing a restrictive arrangement offense from three years to five years, regardless of the existence of aggravating circumstances – and administrative – raising the nominal ceiling on the amount of a financial sanction that may be imposed on a company whose sales turnover exceeds 300 million NIS, from 24 million NIS to 100 million NIS. Among the relaxations is the raising of the combined turnover threshold of parties to a merger above which there is an obligation to approach the Commissioner for merger approval, so that such an obligation will apply only when the combined turnover of the merging companies exceeds 360 million NIS, compared to a significantly lower threshold of 150 million NIS previously set in the Law. Another relaxation introduced by the Amendment concerns shortening the period within which the Commissioner must respond to a request by parties to a restrictive arrangement to exempt them from the obligation to obtain Tribunal approval for the arrangement. The Amendment provides that the Commissioner will give his response to such a request within 30 days, instead of 90 days, but also provides that he may extend the response period by an additional 120 days if necessary, provided he gives the parties a reasoned written decision for the extension. A further relaxation concerns officeholders in a corporation, for whom the maximum penalty that may be imposed for failing to meet the duty of supervision, as distinct from committing the offense itself, will now be one year, instead of five years. Beyond this, the Amendment provides that the authority to grant an extension for the Commissioner's decision regarding a merger, beyond the 30 days set in the Law, which was previously vested in the chairperson of the Tribunal or required the parties' consent, will partially transfer to the Commissioner, so that if the Commissioner finds that review of a merger notice justifies an extension beyond 30 days, he may extend it for two additional periods of 30 days each, and thereafter may further extend the period by an additional sixty days, following consultation with the Exemptions and Mergers Committee. It should be noted that the Commissioner must give the parties a reasoned written notice of such extensions. Additionally, one of the central amendments in the Bill relates to the definition of "monopoly holder". Under the definition prior to the Amendment, a "monopoly holder" is one who holds a market share greater than half the market. The Amendment provides that the definition of a monopoly holder will be expanded to also include one who holds significant market power, even if he does not hold more than half the market.

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